One of many panel discussions on the current Bocas Lit Fest centered on the destiny of newspaper columnists in at present’s setting. Themed “They Don’t Write Them Like They Used to: A Dialogue on the Current and Way forward for the Newspaper Column,” it ended up with a slightly bleak prognosis.
Among the many signs of its malaise was the final decline in newspaper readership; the rise in social media platforms as sources of stories and knowledge; the will for brief articles (titbits actually); and, a surfeit of columnists writing on the identical topics with little variation in method.
All legitimate observations. Expertise has had a heavy hand in redirecting consideration spans and existence.
We don’t need to recreate the world that when was, however we are able to attempt to recapture these components that have been significant. Fact is, some issues are timeless and priceless, and don’t have anything to do with the evolving types of expertise.
We now have a lot info at our fingertips, however do we all know tips on how to course of it?
However that’s not what I need to take a look at; my focus for now’s newspapers.
It is likely to be odd for folks to affiliate the present Guardian newspaper with the richest tradition of fantastic Caribbean writing in its options sections. Evaluations of all types have been common—books, movies, artwork, theatre—the standard was excellent; even the social occasions have been handled with finesse.
I don’t recall meals and eating places occupying any considerable area, however that might have been a mirrored image of the time.
I’ve an intimate information of the content material of the paper from its inception, having helped to compile its exhibition to mark its seventy fifth anniversary within the early Nineties.
Reviewers knew what they have been writing about, they usually wrote generally scathing, generally adulatory articles that gave context and a basic appreciation of the character of the topics beneath scrutiny.
They have been edifying, to say the least; in no way just like the press releases coming from the individuals who put their work on show and know that until they ship out one thing, they may by no means hope for discerning protection.
So, we get notices that issues have occurred, not evaluations. It is a disservice to the humanities, and one cause why individuals are not considering studying.
Whereas it might be true that individuals are studying newspapers much less, I believe they’re nonetheless studying, simply discovering their topics of curiosity for themselves. They don’t need to take what the newspapers deem to be worthy of consideration, they’ll select to seek for what they need.
It appears to me that the newspapers need to reconfigure themselves, taking into account that the information they current is hardly unique, and what would make them stand out is the standard of their options. On this class, I embrace columnists.
A few years in the past, when Kathy Ann Waterman (now Justice Waterman-Latchoo) grew to become editor-in-chief on the Trinidad Categorical, she set about radically shifting the thrust of the newspaper’s method to protection.
(Copyright Alva Viarruel/ AFP)
Her concept was that the core of the whole lot that was to be written ought to give attention to folks, the way it affected them and what their lives have been about.
It was to me, the golden years of the Categorical. Sensible author that she is, Kathy Ann understood that in the end, sensitivity to the circumstances surrounding ourselves led to deeper understanding and empathy, and folks might determine with tales that have been additionally theirs.
I’ve by no means understood why that initiative busted. In hindsight, I determine that it was too unpalatable for the standard outdated boys to abdomen.
I recall that one editor had referred to my very own inclination in the direction of that method as “smooth”. Newspapers, like a lot else in our wretched societies, have been outlined in minds that can’t budge from outdated notions.
That psychological stodginess is definitely liable for the rise of the quacks who provide opinions which can be so devoid of intelligence that one can be tempted to see them as makes an attempt at buffoonery have been it not for the chilling penalties.
How else does one clarify the continued existence of the Minister of Nationwide Safety?
Or the echo of his concern about our nationwide picture being sullied within the feedback of a columnist who referred to the “appalling lack of patriotism” from residents who “defend foreigners who got down to denigrate and demean their very own nation”—as if to say that the actions highlighted don’t exist besides inside seditious minds.
Freedom of speech is to be supported. With out it, we’re weak to the whims of these wielding energy.
To come back again to the problem of newspaper columnists and the feedback that there are too many repeating the identical issues; it’s value making the purpose that newspapers have succumbed to the decision of the monetary backside line and like to have retirees writing free of charge, slightly than spend money on individuals who even have fascinating issues to say.
Marina Salandy-Brown, who had moderated the panel dialogue, invoked one in every of our fantastic former newspaper columnists, Jeremy Taylor, to outline the perfect traits: good high quality writing, recent thought, one thing value saying, being knowledgeable, and the capability to inform the reality, even about themselves.
She additionally identified that columnists are cautious due to the concern of backlash. I do know that the savagery of social media posts has made many worthy writers reluctant to reveal themselves.
It’s worse now that they might additionally need to take care of the opportunity of sedition prices. Sigh.
Vaneisa Baksh is a columnist with the Trinidad Categorical, an editor and a cricket historian. She is the creator of a biography of Sir Frank Worrell.
